Wrangell's History

Lazy morning. Eventually we went to town to the Visitor Center and spent a couple hours going through the Wrangell Museum. It's a wonderful place. For a small town Wrangell has a lot of history. Wrangell is the only town in Alaska that has been ruled by four nations and three flags - the Tlingit nation, Russia, Britain and the United States.

We learned about the Tlingits who have been here for atleast 5,000 years and saw artifacts, tools, baskets, clothing and totems. There were 3 separate gold rushes and each one caused Wrangell to Boom. It became a lawless town - even Wyatt Earp refused to stay - he was there for 10 days until they found a replacement for the law man. Hollywood also found Wrangell in the 1950's and made a movie called Tall Timbers with Claude Raynes. Timber brought good times and then died off due to forest regulations. Fishing took over and that's the focus of the town today. If you're coming to Alaska stop here!

We drove 2 minutes up the road to Shakes Island. We parked at the Reliance Dock, went through a little wooden gate and followed a wooden walk across the end of the harbor to the island. In 1940 more than 1500 visitors arrived in Wrangell to attend the last great potlatch of the local Tlingit people. The new Chief Shakes Tribal House was built on the island and the totem park was erected. Now the potlatch (ceremony) would name the last Chief Shakes. Chief Shakes VI died in 1916 and a new chief was not named until 1940 when Kudanake was given the title.

We admired the detail at the entrance of Chief Shakes Clan House (which means 'House of Many Faces') and viewed the historic totems, like Chief Kaladashan Totem and Bear Up The Mountain, which stands in front of the clan house. This was my favorite. -- The bear is perched at the top of a tall pole (showing leadership) and bear tracks make a pathway up which commemorates a legendary flood. When the flood came, the Shakes tribe was at their summer camp near Cone Mountain on the Stikine River. As the water rose, the people fled to higher ground. They fought their way up the mountain through heavy underbrush, and came across two grizzly bears who were also looking for refuge. The bears showed by their actions they wanted to help lead the Shakes people to safety. The group reached the top of Cone Mountain, where they stayed until the flood waters receded. --

Leaving Shakes Island we drove to the Town Docks to check out the first day of the King Salmon Derby, but not much activity going on.

Our next stop was Muskeg Meadows Golf Course. We grabbed a hot dog and hit some balls from their "covered" driving range. It's a really nice facility.

Back at camp we found Capt'n Jim watering his rasberry plants along the edge of the campground. He and Ken chatted for a while. We got a couple of movies at City Market, thanks to Dawn. However they're closed tomorrow (Sunday) so she said we could leave them with Capt'n Jim's daughter who lives next door to the campground. We watched movies and had spaghetti for dinner. It was a laid back day.

Pictures: Alaskan Waters RV Park, Chief Kaladashan Totems, Chief Shakes Clan House, Wrangell Inner Harbor